Astronomy - Mathematics
In
late antiquity the major centres of learning in the empire such as Alexandria, Antioch, Athens and Constantinople
cultivated the study of many fields of knowledge, with an emphasis on
Philosophy, Rhetoric and Law.
Once
Christianity prevailed, debate arose concerning the creation of the world, and how
the contents of the Old Testament related to current knowledge and ancient
science. Two schools of interpretation emerged, one in Alexandria and the other in Antioch.
The
school of Alexandria argued that everything in the
Book of Genesis was written in an allegorical manner, in other words that it
meant something different from what it said. Followers of this school were Philo of Alexandria, a philosopher who
lived in Alexandria
from 20 BC to 50 AD, and Saint Basil the Great , who expressed his views in nine
speeches collected into a book called the Hexameron
(The Six Days of Creation). In the
book, Basil accepts the Greek astronomical model as described by Claudius
Ptolemy (a famous Greek natural philosopher who lived in Alexandria from 127 to151 AD). According to
this view, the world is round; the earth is also round and motionless, and is
located at the centre of the universe.
Unlike
the school of Alexandria, the school of Antioch
argued that everything in the Book of Genesis happened exactly as described,
word for word. Followers of this school were Theophilus of Antioch and John
Chrysostom, who claimed that the world was of various shapes and that the earth
was flat. Similar views are expressed by Cosmas Indicopleustes in his book Christian Topography, which presents the
earth as the flat bottom of a chest, with the celestial sphere as its vaulted lid.
The
Byzantines did not always accept Greek science easily. On the one hand there
were those who supported it, such as Emperor Heraclius (610-640), who summoned
a follower of Greek science called Stephen of Alexandria to teach in Constantinople, and on the other there were events like
the murder of Hypatia, a woman astronomer killed by fanatical Christians in Alexandria in 415.
The
difficult
centuries
Arab
sources report the presence of Byzantine scholars in Baghdad and Damascus, which in the early 9th
century became centres for the study of mathematics (especially algebra) and astronomy.
Theophilus
of Edessa († 785) was the personal astronomer-astrologer of Caliph al-Mahdi
(775-785), while Leo the Mathematician († ca 869) was invited to Baghdad by Caliph al-Mamoun
(813-833), in return for immense riches. Leo, however, preferred to become Archbishop
of Thessaloniki and then "protector of the philosophy faculty" in the
Magnaura Pandidakterion (University of the Palace Hall of Magnaura). Works by
ancient and modern scholars such as Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius of Perge in
Pamphylia, Claudius Ptolemy, Diophantus, Theon Alexandricus (Hypatia’s father)
and others were reissued in Constantinople. In general, Byzantium was in constant
contact with the Arab caliphate at the time, and their technical expertise in
matters of peace and war was largely shared, as can be seen in the case of Greek
fire.
The Comnenus and Angelos era
The
most important evidence for the impact of Arab science on Byzantine scholars
comes from this period, especially regarding the solution of practical
mathematical problems and the planning of astronomical tables. These tables contained
predictions about the positions of celestial bodies, conjunctions and eclipses,
which proved very useful in calculating Easter time and making horoscopes.
The
only surviving complete translation of a work of Arabic astronomy, the Calculation Method for Diverse Astronomical
Hypotheses (about 1060-1072) comes from this period. Anna Comnena mentions
that her father Emperor Alexius I had four astrologers in his court - two Egyptians, an Athenian and Simeon Seth, physician
and mathematician, author of the work Conspectus
rerum naturalium (“On the Things of Nature”) (c. 1058). In the first half
of the 12th century, Byzantine manuscripts containing scientific works by Ancient
Greek authors such as Aristotle, Euclid, Heron, Ptolemy and Proclus were translated
into rather poor Latin at the Sicilian royal court. A little later, the same
works and others were also translated in Spain.
That
being said, conservative circles in Byzantium
regarded magic, astrology and the occult as a betrayal of Christianity. One of
the great unsolved detective stories in Byzantium
concerns a complaint made by Michael Psellos in 1058 against Patriarch Michael Cerularius,
claiming that the latter had been initiated into Mithraism and other pagan
orgiastic cults by two monks, Nikitas and John, and by Dosithea, a woman with a
dark past, possibly a former actress and clairvoyant. Cerularius suffered what
was probably a stress-induced heart attack, and died minutes before he was due
to be questioned.
The
Palaeologan Era
After
the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders in
1204, the university and patriarchal school that had been the capital’s
educational institutions collapsed, and their significant libraries were scattered
and transferred to the Latin West. An attempt to reorganize education was made
in Nice, where most of the scholars settled. In fact, in 1239 and 1240 Nicephorus
Blemmydes travelled to Mount Athos, Thessaloniki, Larissa and Ohrid to gather
books for republication. His Physics is
an abbreviated presentation of Aristotle's work of the same name.
So it was that after 1261
the teaching of four maths courses (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) resumed
at the University
of Constantinople. George
Pachmeres’ work Quadrivium is a textbook
on those four subjects.
In
this last Byzantine period, knowledge of astronomy was enriched both by the Persians
and by the West, even if reactions were provoked by negotiations over the union
of the Churches.
Special interest was shown in this era in amending Ptolemy’s laws
and comparing them with those that derived from the East, i.e. Persia, or from
other Western traditions, such as the Arab laws of Toledo, the Alfonsine laws and the laws of the
Jews of Provence. George Chioniades was the first apprentice of the famous
Shams Al Din Al Mouchari in Tabriz
in 1300, and translated Arabic and Persian astronomical texts and tables. Scholars
who wrote astronomical studies, among other things, were George Chrysokokkes,
Barlaam of Calabria, Nicephorus Gregoras, Theodore Melitiniotis, Theodore
Metochites, Nicephorus Choumnos, Demetrius Chrysoloras, Michael Chrysokokkes,
Mark of Ephesus (“the Courteous”) and Gemistus Pletho, who all belong to the Byzantine
intelligentsia of the time.
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